This appetizer is decadent and delicious, yet easy to prepare. It was inspired by an amuse bouche we had at Spectrum. There it was served as a small portion inside a whelk shell (a whelk is a sea snail). The amount I prepared could easily be served to 6 or 8 rather than 4 and the presentation could be improved upon, but the flavor was fabulous. You could also serve this on small crostini as canapés.
Kaffir limes have more aromatic zest than regular limes, so use them in you can. If you can’t find fresh lime leaves, frozen ones from an Asian store will do.
Ingredients
For 4-8 servings as an appetizer
300 grams (.66 lb) cauliflower florets
60 grams (2 oz) caviar
lime zest, preferably from kaffir lime
16 lime leaves
80 ml (1/3 cup) coconut milk
salt and freshly ground white pepper
freshly squeezed lime juice
Instructions
Make cuts in the lime leaves so they will release more flavor, but keeping them whole so it will be easy to fish them out later.
Vacuum seal the cauliflower with lime leaves and coconut milk.
If you don’t own a chamber vacuum sealer, use a ziploc bag and the water displacement method.
Cook sous-vide for 2 hours at 85C/185F.
Put the cauliflower and coconut milk in a blender and discard the lime leaves.
Blend until smooth.
Allow the cauliflower mousse to cool. Season to taste with salt, freshly ground white pepper, and freshly squeezed lime juice. Use salt sparingly, as the caviar is already very salty.
Place the cauliflower mousse into serving vessels of your choice. Sprinkle with freshly grated lime zest.
Top with caviar, and serve. The caviar and mousse should be enjoyed together.
Wine pairing
This is great with a good sparkling wine such as Champagne or a Cava Gran Reserva.
Flashback
We love risotto and make it quite often. The nice thing about this recipe for bell pepper risotto is that no flavor is lost because the bell peppers are cooked in the stock that will be used for the risotto (and of course the trimmings are used for the stock, too). Another advantage of cooking the bell peppers like this, is that it allows you to peel the peppers quite easily. This risotto is perfect for summer, but as the quality of bell peppers is constant year-round in this part of the world (as they come from greenhouses), this can be made any time of the year.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
Sounds delicious, Stefan! My typical vessel for caviar is white bread and butter – but I would definitely try the caviar with the mousse as you are suggesting. Happy Holidays!
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A warm holiday hello from right amidst one of Australia’s worst fire scenes with four catastrophic days ahead ! But just had to say this interesting recipe really grabbed me and I would love to partake !! Delicious memory of my first trip back to Europe – having breakfast on a KLM plane waiting to reach Rome – the hostie could not be bothered doing all the office chores of what was left and simply handed over an almost full 500 gm tin of Beluga with appropriate add-ons with a bottle of Bollinger . . . was a spoilt brat then but have never forgotten . . . oh, the tin was empty when we landed . . .
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This recipe interests me as well. Can the mousse be piped?
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With a piping bag? Sure. It would have kept the serving glasses cleaner if I had done that.
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Un abbinamento molto originale, e comunque facile. Grazie, lo farò a Capodanno 🙂
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I tried this recipe yesterday, but found the cauliflower/lime mousse too bitter…. so -last minute- I ended up making a celeriac mousse instead. The caviar was too expensive to not have a perfect mousse.
I think the kaffir lime leaves or the juice were the problem in the cauliflower mousse, so it might be a good idea to check the bitterness of those before using!
However, the sweetness of the celeriac worked well with the sourness of the grated lime (I didn’t use the leaves the second time) and the saltiness of the caviar !
Thanks Stefan for the beautiful recipes you share! A lot of work but the descriptions are so good!
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Hi, thanks for your kind comments.
I think it may be helpful to remove the central rib from the kaffir lime leaves. You could also add a little sugar to mask the bitterness, but only a little as you should not really taste the sugar and it could also mess with the wine (if you are having wine with it).
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